Keywords

10.1 Background

Vietnam is a country in Southeast Asia with a total area of 331,114 km2 and the coast of the East stretches about 3200 km2 from North to South. North Vietnam borders with China, Laos borders in the West and Cambodia borders in the Southwest.

Vietnam has 54 ethnic groups integrate and live in the development of the country. The average annual population growth rate is 1.21%. Life expectancy is 73.4. The average density is 250 people per square kilometre. Average population in 2017 of the whole country reached 93.7 million peoples, an increase of 979.4 thousand peoples, and equivalent to 1.06% over 2016, of which urban population was 32.8 million people, accounting for 35%; rural population was 60.9 million people, accounting for 65%; male population was 46.3 million peoples, accounting for 49.4%; female population was 47.4 million peoples, accounting for 50.6%.

In 2017, GDP at current prices reached 5006 trillion VND, equivalent to 2242 billion USD; GDP per capita was 53.4 million VND, equivalent to 2,389 USD, an increase of 174 USD over 2016. In terms of 2017 economic structure, the agriculture, forestry and fishery sector made up 15.34%, the industry and construction sector accounted for 33.40%; the service sector was 41.26%; the products taxes less subsidies on production accounted for 10.0%.

In terms of FDI attraction, there were 2741 newly licensed projects in 2017 with registered capital of 22.2 billion USD, increased by 4.9% in the number of projects and 40.1% in the registered capital in comparison with 2016. Besides, 1234 turns of licensed projects from previous years registered to adjust investment with additional capital of 8.6 billion USD, an increase of 31.5% compared to the last year. Thus, the total registered capital of new projects and additional capital in 2017 reached 30.8 billion USD, an increase of 37.5% over 2016. Of which, the manufacturing attracted the most registered capital with 14.7 billion USD, sharing 47.6% of total registered capital; the electricity, gas, steam and air conditioning supply achieved 8.4 billion USD, making up 27.2%; the other economic activities gained 7.7 billion USD, accounting for 25.2%. The implementation capital in 2017 gained 17.5 billion USD, an increase of 10.8% in comparison with 2016. Among countries and territories invested in Vietnam in 2017, Japan was the largest investor that gained total newly licensed capital, additional capital and share-based contributed capital with 9.2 billion USD, accounting for 24.8% of total registered capital; the second largest investor was Korea with 8.7 billion USD, accounted for 23.5%; Singapore reached 5.9 billion USD, accounting for 15.9%; China was 2.1 billion USD, making up 5.8%; British Virgin Islands was 1.7 billion USD, accounting for 4.4%, etc.

Living standards are increasingly improved. Human Development Index (HDI) rose from 0.695 in 2016 to 0.700 in 2017. The rate of multi-dimensional poverty household was 7.9% in 2017, a decrease of 1.3 percentage points against 2016, of which the urban areas was 2.7%, a reduction of 0.8 percentage points and the rural areas was 10.8%, a decrease of 1 percentage point. By geographical regions, the Northern Midlands and mountainous areas were the regions with the highest multi-dimensional poverty household rate (21%), and South-east region was the lowest one (0.9%).

The labour force aged 15 years and over of the whole country in 2017 reached 54.8 million peoples, in which male employees accounted for 51.9% and female employees made up 48.1%; the labour force in urban areas accounted for 32.2%, meanwhile this rate in rural areas was 67.8%.

The employed population aged 15 years and over working in the economic activities reached 53.7 million peoples in 2017, of which employees of the agriculture, forestry and fishery sector were 21.6 million peoples, accounted for 40.2% of the total employed population; the industry and construction sector made up 13.8 million peoples with the corresponding share of 25.7%; and the service sector accounted for 18.3 million peoples with the corresponding share of 34.1%.

The percentage of trained employed workers aged 15 years and over with diplomas and certificates reached at 21.4% in 2017 (higher than the figure of 20.6% of the year 2016), of which the percentage of trained employed workers was 37.9% in urban areas and 13.7% in rural areas.

The unemployment rate of labour force at working age was 2.24% in 2017, of which these rates of urban and rural areas were 3.18 and 1.78%, respectively. The underemployment rate of labour force in working age was 1.62% in 2017, of which the urban areas were 0.82% and the rural areas were 2.03%.Footnote 1

10.2 TVET Mission, Legislation and National Policy or Strategy

10.2.1 TVET Mission/Goals

The Law on Vocational Education and Training (VET) regulates overall objectives of the vocational education and training system which is to train human resources for the businesses, enterprises and service providers. Workers should be well-trained and capable of the jobs in their respective field, having good health and morality, taking responsibility with their career and being creative, adjusting themselves with global standards, providing high-quality services and being able to find jobs on their own, create jobs or move up to higher education.Footnote 2

In addition, the Law provides forward-thinking guidance on flexible provision, quality control, governance and management, financing, the role of enterprises and the rights and duties of organizations and individuals who participate in vocational education and training activities.

Specific objectives pertaining to every level of vocational educationFootnote 3:

  1. (i)

    Elementary level: equip students for abilities to perform simple tasks of a particular job;

  2. (ii)

    Intermediate level: equip students for abilities to perform elementary-level tasks and some complicated and special tasks; apply technology to their jobs, work independently or work in groups;

  3. (iii)

    College level: equip students for abilities to perform intermediate-level tasks and some complicated and special tasks; acquire abilities to create and apply modern technology to their jobs, instruct and observe other members in their groups in performing the tasks.

10.2.2 TVET Legislation

  • The Law on Vocational Education and Training (Law No. 74/2014/QH13, dated 27 November 2014)

    • The Law on Vocational Education and Training, consists of eight chapters and 79 articles, has restructured Vietnam’s national education system, comprehensively changing the current vocational education and training system. The Law regulates the comprehensive vocational education and training system at three qualification levels: elementary, intermediate and college levels. TVET institutes are vocational education and training centres, vocational secondary schools and colleges. There are three methods to organize training, including time-based training, module accumulation and credit accumulation. The duration of intermediate-level training for a general lower-secondary school graduate is from 1 to 2 years depending on specific occupations. Learners are not required to study general upper-secondary school subjects. The duration of training at the elementary level is 300 hours at the minimum.

    • TVET institutions are allowed to design their own training programmes based on the national occupational skill standards and learning outcomes of the respective occupations. College graduates are given the title of Practice Engineer or Practice Bachelor. Private TVET institutions and foreign-funded TVET institutions are given priority by the government to rent facilities and training equipment. All TVET institutions, regardless of their type as private or public institutions, are invited: to participate in bidding for training contracts/orders; to borrow preferential funds from domestic and international projects; to allow TVET teaching and management staff to participate in training programmes financed by the state budget, domestically and overseas. Tuition waiving is applicable for beneficiaries of favourable social policies and state benefits, general lower-secondary school graduates, learners of occupations with low rate of admission but in high demand and learners who want to learn special technical skills. The knowledge and skills accumulated by the learners during their working life and the learning results of those modules, credits and subjects accumulated by them during the learning process are recognized, and learning courses do not have to be repeated. Learners who are beneficiaries of favourable social policies are entitled to boarding school policy when pursuing a vocational education and training programme, and there are special privileges for them to be recruited and paid after completing a vocational education and training programme.

There are clear regulations on the titles of teachers working in TVET institutes. Accordingly, those who teach in vocational education and training centres and vocational education and training secondary schools are called teachers while those who teach in colleges are called lecturers. The Law also regulates policies on honouring TVET teachers and policies for the prolongation of their working time. Meanwhile, enterprises participating in vocational education and training activities are entitled to corporate income tax deduction.

  • Labour Code (Law No. 10/2012/QH13 dated 18 June 2012)

This Code is adopted by the National Assembly of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam, term XIII, 3rd session on 18 June 2012. Chapter IV Labour Code regulations: the employees are entitled to choose their vocation and vocational training at workplaces consistently with their demands for employment. The eligible employers are supported by the state to establish vocational training facilities or hold vocational training classes at workplaces to train, retrain, improve the vocational skill and grade for their employees and provide vocational training to other learners as prescribed by law provisions on vocational training.

The employers shall make the annual plan and prepare budget to provide vocational training or vocational skill and grade improvement courses for their employees and train the employees before they change their jobs to be recruited by the employers. The employer must send reports on the results of vocational skill and grade training and improvement to provincial state labour management agencies in the annual labour reports.

When the employer recruits vocational learners and apprentices to work for them, the vocational training registration is not required and school fee collection is prohibited. The vocational learners and apprentices in this case must be 14 years or over and physically capable of the vocational demand, except for the occupations prescribed by the Ministry of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs. Both parties must sign the vocational training contract. During the vocational training and apprenticeship, if the vocational leaner or the apprentice directly creates or participates in the creation of qualified products, they shall be paid an amount agreed by both parties. When the vocational training or apprenticeship completes, both parties must sign the labour contract when the conditions prescribed in this Code are satisfied. In addition, the employer is responsible to encourage the employee to participate in the vocational skill assessment in order to be issued with the national vocational certificate.

  • Law on Employment (Law No: 38/2013/QH13 dated 16 November 2013)

Purposes of assessment and grant of certificates of national occupational skills are (i) assessment and grant of certificates of national occupational skills aim to recognize the levels of occupational skills of workers based on their qualifications and (ii) Workers may participate in the assessment and be granted certificates of national occupational skills in order to improve their occupational capacity or seek appropriate employment or employment requiring such certificates.

The assessment of national occupational skills must adhere to the following principles: ensuring voluntariness of workers; being based on national occupational skills standards; conforming with each qualification level of skills of each occupation; and ensuring accuracy, independence, impartiality, equality and transparency.

Contents of assessment of national occupational skills include professional and technical knowledge, work practice skills and occupational safety and hygiene process.

National occupational skills standards shall be developed for each qualification level of occupational skills for each occupation and the national occupational skills qualification framework. The number of qualification levels of occupational skills depends on the complexity of each occupation. Ministers, heads of ministerial-level agencies and heads of government—attached agencies shall assume the prime responsibility for developing national occupational skills standards for each occupation in the fields under their management and request the Ministry of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs to appraise and publicize national occupational skills standards. The Ministry of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs shall guide the development, appraisal and publicization of national occupational skills standards.

A worker who satisfies the requirements at a certain qualification level of occupational skills will be granted a certificate of national occupational skills at that level according to regulations of the Ministry of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs. Certificates of national occupational skills are valid nationwide. In case of mutual recognition of certificates of national occupational skills between Vietnam and other countries or territories, the certificates of national occupational skills are valid in the countries or territories where they are recognized and vice versa.

Certificates of national occupational skills are required for workers who do jobs that directly affect the safety and health of themselves or of the community.

  • Vocational Training Development Strategy period 2011–2020 (No. 630/QD-TTg of the Prime Minister dated 29 May 2012)

Human resources development is one of the three strategic breakthrough solutions, in which vocational training quality is regarded as a critical element of socio-economic development. Vietnam adopts the principles of “radical and comprehensive educational renovation”, including vocational training, which poses a new opportunity for vocational training development.

By 2020, vocational training will meet the labour market’s demands in terms of quantity, quality and vocational structure and qualifications with the quality in some trades reaching the standards of advanced countries to form a force of skilled labourers to help improve the national competitiveness and to realize universalization of vocational training for labourers, contributing to restructure the labour force, raising the income to alleviate poverty in a sustainable manner, ensuring social security.

Solutions of strategy are: (i) Building National Vocational Qualification Framework (NVQF); (ii) renovating state management of vocational training; (iii) planning and developing the network of vocational training institutions; (iv) ensuring the quality of vocational training, including developing vocational teachers, instructors and managers, developing curriculums and syllabuses and enhancing vocational facilities and equipment; (v) control of vocational training quality, including vocational training quality accreditation and assessment and certificates of national skills; (vi) linking vocational training with the labour market and the participation of enterprises; (vii) mobilizing resources for the vocational training sector; (viii) raising awareness of vocational training development; and (ix) promoting international cooperation in vocational training.

  • Project on Vocational Training for Rural Workers until 2020 (Decision No. 1956/QD-TTg of the Prime Minister dated 27 November 2009)

Beneficiaries of the project are rural labourers of working age with educational level and health status suitable to the trades to be trained. To prioritize those entitled to incentive policies for people with meritorious contributions to the revolution, poor households and households with income of up to 150% of that of poor households, ethnic minority people, disabled people and people subject to recovery of farmland.

General objectives are to provide vocational training for around one million rural labourers on average per years, including training and retraining of 100,000 commune cadres and civil servants and improving vocational training quality and effectiveness to create jobs and raise income for rural labourers, making contributions to labour and economic restructuring in service of industrialization and modernization of agriculture and rural areas.

  • Special provisions

    • TVET ethnic minority students from economically deprived areas, near-poor TVET students in mountainous areas are allowed to have tuition reduction from public TVET institutions (Decree No. 86/2015/ND-CP of the Government dated 2 October 2015).

    • Students from poor and near-poor households and people with disabilities or being permanent resident in socio-economically disadvantaged or ethnic areas or in border and island areas are allowed to receive specific scholarship and other allowances (Decision No. 53/2015/QD-TTg of the Prime Minister dated 20 October 2015).

10.2.3 TVET Strategy

Economic modernization and strong growth are driving Vietnam’s demand for vocational skills which the domestic VET sector is currently unable to meet, in both quality and quantity. Vietnam’s VET sector is appropriately structured or resourced to deliver services at a level and standard that meets the needs of a modern economy and society.

The Law on Vocational Education and Training came into effect in July 2015. Major changes for the national TVET system are regulated in this Law. Investment in VET will be prioritized in socio-economic development plan.

To implement the Law on Vocational Education and Training in practice, a number of activities have been implemented: (i) responsible state management agencies in TVET sector work together to develop and release new under-law documents (e.g. decrees, circulars, decisions, etc.) which instruct and guide TVET-related entities implement the Law; (ii) continue the implementation of the national TVET policies which are still suitable with the objectives of the TVET system (e.g. The Vocational Training Development Strategy 2011–2020).

Stakeholders involved and their role:

  • Line ministries (e.g. Ministry of Industry and Trade, Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, Ministry of Construction, etc.), they are partners of the Ministry of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs (MoLISA)—the Ministry has responsibility to manage the TVET system—for development and approval of national occupational skill standards in their responsible sectors.

  • Provincial Department of Labour, Invalid and Social Affairs (DoLISA) is responsible for state management of TVET activities at provincial level.

  • TVET institutions (vocational education and training colleges, vocational education and training secondary schools, vocational education and training centres) deliver TVET programmes.

  • TVET teacher training institutions: they are university and colleagues that deliver TVET teacher pre-service training programmes.

  • Industry (professional associations and enterprises) contribute to development of occupational standards, curricular, training, testing exercises, assessment, tracer and enterprise surveys. Level of participation in each type of activity depends on occupations, willingness of each company or association. Generally, the participation of industry in TVET activities is gradually growing recently, but it is still limited, not systematic and sustainable.

10.3 TVET Governance and Financing

10.3.1 Governance

Directorate of Vocational Education and Training (DVET) of Ministry of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs (MoLISA) is responsible for state management of the TVET sector in the countrywide. Mr. Nguyen Hong Minh is the current Director General of DVET.

Historical stages of stage management agency on vocational education and training

  • From 1955 to 1978:

    • 1955–1969: The Ministry of Labour (Department of Labour Management)

    • 1969–1978: The Ministry of Labour (Department of Workers Training)

  • From 1978 to 1987: The Cabinet Council (General Department of Vocational Training—GDVT)

  • From 1987 to 1990: The Ministry of Higher Education, Professional Secondary Education and Vocational Training (Department of TVET)

  • From 1990 to 1998: The Ministry of Education and Training—MoET (Department of Professional Secondary Education and Vocational Training)

  • From 1998 to June 2015: The Ministry of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs—MoLISA (General Department of Vocational Training)

  • At the meantime, the Department of Professional Secondary Education and Vocational Training of MoET was responsible for the professional secondary education

  • From 1 July 2015 to present: MoLISA (Directorate of Vocational Education and Training).

Resolution No. 76/NQ-CP dated 3 September 2016 by the Government decides that the Ministry of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs is the state management agency on vocational education and training, and Ministry of Education and Training is the state management agency on pedagogical schools. Since 2017, these schools will admit learners based on the regulations promulgated in accordance with the Law on Vocational Education and Training.

DVET has function of executing the consulting role to assist the MoLISA to exercise the state management role in vocational education and training area, including: programmes, curriculums, contents, planning, quality of training, national skill framework, criteria of TVET lecturers, teachers and managerial staff, procedure of exams, trainee recruitment, system of certificates and degrees, lists of training occupations, physical foundation, training equipment and facilities and execution of state management in vocational training area as specified by laws.

10.3.2 Financing

There are two sources of funding for vocational training: state budget and non-state budget funding.

  • State budget: the state budget funds consist of three types: recurrent funding, capital construction investment and fund for national target programmes (programme funding). Only public TVET institutions receive substantial public funding to cover both recurrent and capital costs; and selected VET institutions are eligible for funding from the national target programme VET.

  • Non-state budget funding: this includes vocational training admission charges and tuition fees, incomes from services, business and production activities and counselling and technology transfer done by the TVET institutions as well as investment and funds from domestic and international organizations and individuals (Fig. 10.1).

    Fig. 10.1
    figure 1

    Source Directorate of Vocational Education and Training (DVET)

    Structure of financial resources for VET during 2011–2016 (%).

    Full size image

For recurrent funding source: spending is expenditure for the regular operation of TVET institutions.

Regular spending from state budget for vocational training must be allocated in accordance with the principle of publicity and centralized democracy. It is based on the vocational training scale and socio-economic development conditions of each region and demonstrates the state’s priority policy for popularization of vocational training and development of vocational training in ethnic and specially disadvantaged areas.

Financial agencies are responsible for allocating adequate and timely funding to vocational training as dictated by the progress of the academic year. The vocational training management agencies are responsible for managing and utilizing the vocational training budget allocated and other income sources efficiently as stipulated by law.

Funding to vocational training institutions is allocated from the budget of provinces and municipalities or industries. This source is usually depending on salaries and insurance for the teaching and other staff on the payroll. Due to insufficient expenditures for purchase of materials for practice, vocational training institutions usually request an additional financial resource called training support fund. Allocations of the training support fund depend on localities.

Under the current mechanism of spending the state budget on vocational training, MoLISA is only allowed to participate in the process of estimating and allocating the state budget for the national target programmes in vocational training. MoLISA is not allowed yet to get involved in the estimation and allocation of the state budget for recurrent expenditures and infrastructure of vocational training.

Private training providers, which have been growing in number during recent years, are usually fully self-financing. The main source is tuition fees. They do not receive any regular state funding. In line with the socialization policy, the Vietnamese Government explicitly encourages the establishment of non-public training providers and has already established a sound legal basis for private institutions (including commercial schools) to develop. Nevertheless, the growth of the private TVET sector appears to fall short of expectations due to ineffective implementation of existing support policies and lack of competitiveness of private.

10.4 Education and TVET System

The Government subsidizes major expenditure for public education institutions and all the education levels such as infrastructure, equipment and salary for teachers and managers. The fund could be provided in form of annual recurrent fund or national target programmes (last for several years and for specific purposes). Tuition fee of students and learners cover part of operational expenditures of the education and training institutions (Fig. 10.2).

Fig. 10.2
figure 2

Structural framework of the national education system (Decision No. 1981/QD-TTg 2016)

Full size image

Mandatory years of schools start around early September to end of June of next year.

  • TVET System

Graduation of primary education is the minimum level to enrol in the elementary vocational training programmes.

Graduates from upper-secondary schools, post-secondary education or vocational colleges are eligible to enter tertiary level of education.

Formal TVET System: there are three main types of TVET institutions: vocational education and training centres (elementary level), vocational education and secondary schools (intermediate level) and vocational education and colleges (college level). The three types of TVET institutions exist in countrywide. There were totally 1.972 TVET institutes in 2017 (Fig. 10.3).

Fig. 10.3
figure 3

Source DVET Administration Office

Number of TVET institutions.

Full size image

The Law on VET defines three types of TVET institutes according to their ownership: public TVET institutes, private TVET institutes and foreign-invested TVET institutes. The public TVET institutions were subsidized from the Government, while the non-public TVET institutions have to operate their activities by their own fund.

By 30 October 2016, the total number of TVET institutes was 1,972, of which public TVET institutes accounted for 66.3% (1,307 TVET institutes). Among 1,307 public TVET institutes, the number of public colleges accounted for 23.3% (304 colleges), public VET schools accounted for 23.6% (308 VET schools) and VET centres accounted for 53.1% (695 VET centres). Non-public TVET institutes (including private and foreign-invested institutes) accounted for 33.7% (665 TVET institutes) of the total number of TVET institutes (Fig. 10.4).

Fig. 10.4
figure 4

Source DVET Administration Office

TVET institutions categorized by ownership.

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The main target group of TVET sector is young people (from 15 to 21).

According to Circular 04/2017/TT-BLDTBXH dated 2 March 2017 released by MoLISA on training occupations at intermediate and college levels. There are 784 occupations at intermediate level and 550 occupations at college level.

Vocational training centres offer elementary training programmes, which are under 12 months. Graduates will receive certificate.

Vocational secondary schools (at post-secondary education) offer intermediate training programmes. Depending on input level, graduates of lower-secondary education or upper-secondary education, training duration is 1 year or from 2 to 3 years accordingly. Graduates of vocational secondary schools receive certificate.

Vocational colleges offer college training programme, depend on training occupation and students, who are graduates of upper-secondary schools or vocational secondary schools, training duration could be from 1 to 3 years. Graduates of vocational colleges receive diploma degree.

At post-secondary education and college levels, curricular are developed and approved under decision of rector of TVET institutions (Circular No. 03/2017/TT-BLDTBXH).

Theory versus practice ratio (Circular No. 03/2017/TT-BLDTBXH):

  • For intermediate level: depending on training occupations, the theory/practice ratio for programmes is from 25 to 45%/55 to 75%.

  • For vocational college: depending on training occupations, the theory/practice ratio for programmes is from 30 to 50%/50 to 70%.

TVET students attend internship programme in their last year of training.

10.5 National Qualification Framework

Decision No. 1982/QD-TTg (2016).

Level

Learning outcomes

Requirements for learners completing the course

Minimum academic load

Qualification type

Knowledge and understanding

Skills

Autonomy and responsibility

1

– Have a narrow range of factual knowledge and basic knowledge about a number of activities in a certain profession

– Have basic knowledge about nature, culture, society and legislation serving the life, advanced study and preparation for the future occupation

– Have basic skills to directly carry simple or manual tasks

– Have basic communicative skills in familiar contexts

– Carry out a number of simple and repeated tasks with the assistance of instructors

– Carry out tasks under strict supervision and guidance

– Conduct self-assessment and assessment of tasks with the assistance of instructors

5 credits

Certificate I

2

– Have a narrow range of factual and theoretical knowledge about a number of activities of a profession

– Have general knowledge about nature, culture, society and legislation serving the life, profession and advanced study

– Have awareness and skills required to select and apply suitable methods, tools and materials and available information

– Have communicative skills required to perform the results or make reports on own work

– Carry out a number of tasks with regularity and limited autonomy in familiar contexts

– Carry out tasks in unfamiliar contexts with the guidance of instructors

– Have ability to do self-assessment of own tasks

15 credits

Certificate II

3

– Have factual and theoretical knowledge of common principles, processes and concepts in the scope of a training profession

– Have general knowledge about nature, culture, society and legislation serving the life, profession and advanced study

– Have basic knowledge of information technology related to a certain profession

– Have awareness and skills required to carry out tasks or solve problems independently

– Have skills required to use effectively professional terms at workplace

– Work independently in stable situations and familiar contexts

– Carry out assignments and do self-assessment according to the defined standards

– Carry out teamwork with other people and take responsibility for the results of work

25 credits

Certificate III

4

– Have a broad range of factual and theoretical knowledge about the training profession

– Have basic knowledge of politics, culture, society and legislation answering to the professional and social requirements in the profession

– Have knowledge of information technology answering to the requirements of work

– Have awareness and professional skills required to carry out tasks and solve problems by selecting and applying basic methods, tools, materials and information

– Have skills required to use professional terms in the field of study to communicate effectively at workplace; get involved in argument and apply alternative solution; assess the quality of work and performance of members of the team

– Have foreign language capacity at level 1/6 referencing to Vietnam’s framework of foreign language proficiency

– Work independently in changeable contexts, take personal responsibility and take partial responsibility for teamwork results

– Guide and supervise the ordinary tasks of others

– Evaluate the performance of the team

35 credits, for people with the certificates of completion of upper-secondary education, or 50 credits, for people with the certificates of completion of lower-secondary education

Associate degree

5

– Have comprehensive, factual and theoretical knowledge of the training profession

– Have basic knowledge of politics, culture, society and legislation answering to the professional and social requirements in the profession

– Have knowledge of information technology answering to the requirements of work

– Have factual knowledge about the management, principles and methods for planning, performing, supervising and evaluating the work within the boundaries of the training profession

– Have awareness and creativity to determine, analyse and evaluate broad-range information

– Have practical skills required to abstract problems within the boundaries of the training profession

– Have awareness and creativity to determine, analyse and evaluate broad-range information

– Have skills required to transfer information, ideas and solutions to other people at workplace

– Have foreign language capacity at level 2/6 referencing to Vietnam’s framework of foreign language proficiency

– Work independently or work in teams, solve tasks and complicated problems in changeable contexts

– Guide other people to perform defined tasks and supervise their performance; take personal and shared responsibility

– Evaluate the task results and performance of members in the team

60 credits

College degree

6

– Have an advanced theoretical and factual knowledge in the field of study

– Have basic knowledge of social science, political science and legislation

– Have knowledge of information technology answering to the requirements of work

– Have knowledge about planning, organizing and supervising processes of specific fields of work

– Basic knowledge of the management and control of professional activities

– Have skills required to solve complex problems

– Have skills to be a leader and create own jobs or for other people

– Have argument skills and skills to criticize and apply alternative solutions in unpredictable or changeable contexts

– Have skills to evaluate the task results and performance of members in the team

– Have skills to transfer information about problems and solutions to other people at workplace; transfer and disseminate knowledge and skills in performance of defined or complex tasks

– Have foreign language capacity at level 3/6 referencing to Vietnam’s framework of foreign language proficiency

– Work independently or in team in changeable contexts, take personal responsibility and take partial responsibility for teamwork results

– Guide and supervise the ordinary tasks of others

– Make self-orientation and produce professional conclusions and have ability to protect own viewpoints

– Draw up plans, direct and manage resources, evaluate and find solutions to improve the task performance

120–180 credits

Undergraduate degree

7

– Have advanced specialized knowledge; have a thorough grasp of basic principles and theories in a field of study

– Have relevant knowledge in multidisciplinary field of study

– Have general knowledge about administration and management

– Have advanced and specialized skills including analysation, synthesis and evaluation of data and information to solve problems in a scientific way

– Have skills to transfer knowledge depending on researches, discuss professional and scientific issues with other people

– Have skills to organize, administrate and manage advanced vocational activities

– Have skills to develop and apply technology creatively in a field of study or work

– Have foreign language capacity at level 4/6 referencing to Vietnam’s framework of foreign language proficiency

– Carry out research and produce essential ideas

– Adapt to the context, have self-orientation and guidance skills

– Make professional conclusions for the field of work or study

– Manage, evaluate and develop professional activities

30–60 credits

Master’s degree

8

– Have the most advanced and intensive knowledge in a field of work or study related to science

– Have the essential and basic knowledge in the field of the training profession

– Have knowledge about organization of scientific research and development of new technology

– Have knowledge about administration and organization

– Have skills to master scientific theories, methods and tools serving the researching and development

– Have skills to consolidate and extend professional knowledge

– Have skills to reason and analyse scientific issues and produce creative and original solutions

– Have skills to carry out management and professional direction in terms of research and development

– Have skills to join in domestic and international discussion regarding the field of study and disseminate the research findings

– Research and create new knowledge

– Create new ideas and knowledge for different complex situations

– Adapt to, make self-orientation and provide guidance for other people

– Make professional conclusions and decisions

– Manage researches and have high responsibility in study to develop professional knowledge and experience and produce new ideas and process

90–120 credits

Doctor’s degree

10.6 Quality Assurance and Standards

Vietnam Vocational Training Accreditation Agency (VVTAA) is a unit of Directorate of Vocational Education and Training (DVET), under management of MoLISA, and its major function is to assist the Director General of DVET to perform state function in the area of accreditation and quality management for vocational education and training at national level.

Purpose of accreditation for vocational education and training is to evaluate and determine level of achievement of objectives and training programmes of TVET institutions (vocational colleges, vocational secondary schools and vocational training centres) in a certain period that helps TVET institutions continuously improve quality and effectiveness of training.

The organization and management of vocational training quality accreditation activities are regulated by Article 66 of the Law on Vocational Education and Training as follows:

  1. 1.

    The organization for education quality accreditation shall assess and recognize the vocational training institutions and vocational training programmes satisfying the requirements pertaining to vocational education quality.

  2. 2.

    Organizations for vocational education quality accreditation include:

    1. (a)

      Organizations for vocational education quality accreditation established by the state;

    2. (b)

      Organizations for vocational education quality accreditation established by organizations or individuals.

  3. 3.

    An organization for vocational education quality accreditation established according to projects must:

    1. (a)

      Have facilities, equipment and finance meeting the requirements pertaining to the organization for vocational education quality accreditation;

    2. (b)

      Have administrative official and assessor staff meeting the requirements pertaining to the organization for vocational education quality accreditation.

  4. 4.

    The organizations for education quality accreditation shall have legal status, take legal responsibility for their operation; and they are eligible to collect accreditation fees as prescribed in regulations of law.

  5. 5.

    The Head of vocational education authority shall provide guidance on: requirements, procedures and periods of vocational education quality accreditation; conditions and competence in establishment, permission for establishment, dissolution of the organizations for vocational education quality accreditation; rights and obligations of organizations for vocational education quality accreditation; recognition of accreditation results of the organizations for vocational education quality accreditation; issuance and revocation of certificate of vocational education quality accreditation; criteria, rights and obligations of assessors; and management and issuance of vocational education quality assessor’s cards.

There are two types of accreditation: an accreditation circle starts with self-accreditation of TVET institutions. It happens once per year for all TVET institutions in countrywide.

  1. 1.

    Self-accreditation: TVET institutions must conduct self-accreditation once a year.

  2. 2.

    External accreditation is conducted once every five years for any TVET institutions, which express their need.

Accreditation for TVET institutions is based on eight criteria (for vocational education training centres) and nine criteria for vocational colleges and vocational secondary schools. The criteria cover aspects of, e.g. mandate and objectives of the institutions; training activities; TVET teachers, managers and staff; training curricular, teaching and learning materials; training facilities and equipment; financial management; services for trainees; monitoring and quality assessment, etc. The criterion training curricular, teaching and learning materials reflect a link with NQF. The NQF of Vietnam is very similar to the AQRF.

10.7 TVET Personnel

  • Composition of Personnel

For instance, three core groups are viz. (i) teachers (trainers/instructors), (ii) school management and (iii) in-company trainers. Please provide a small paragraph on each group and preferably a basic pie chart depicting proportions.

  • Composition of Teaching Workforce

The male/female ratio in 2016 was 70.82:29.18 (draft of Vocational Education and Training Report Vietnam 2016).

According to Circular No. 08/2017/TT-BLDTBXH dated 10 March 2017 on standards on qualifications of TVET teachers/instructors.

At vocational college level:

  • For theoretical teachers: obtain at least a Bachelor Degree in specialized field or Bachelor’s in specialized pedagogy in line with the vocation as assigned.

For practical teachers/trainers: obtain one of certificates of vocational skills in line with the vocation as assigned for practical teaching at college level as follows: at least a national certificate of vocational skills level 3, or a worker’s certification level 5/7, 4/6, or a certificate of people’s artisan, people’s artist, or people’s doctor, or a vocation college’s degree or a certificate of vocational practice at vocational college level or equivalent.

At intermediate level (vocational secondary school):

  • For theoretical teachers: obtain at least a Bachelor Degree in specialized field or Bachelor’s in specialized pedagogy in line with the vocation as assigned.

  • For practical teachers/trainers: obtain one of certificates of vocational skills in line with the vocation as assigned for practical teaching at intermediate level as follows: at least a national certificate of vocational skills level 2, or a worker’s certification level 4/7, 3/6, or a certificate of meritorious artisan, meritorious artist, or meritorious doctor, or a certificate of vocational practice at vocational college level or vocational college’s degree or junior college’s degree or equivalent.

At elementary level (vocational training centre): teachers need to obtain at least a diploma of professional secondary school or vocational intermediate school in major appropriate to the vocation to be taught or obtain one of certificates of vocational skills in conformity with the vocation to be taught equivalent to elementary level as follows: at least national certificate of vocational skills level 1 or worker’s certification level 3/7, 2/6 or artisan certificate of province or central-affiliated city.

The pre-service teacher training model of Vietnam is a consecutive model that the students first get a bachelor qualification in a technical–technological field. They are then trained in vocational pedagogy in a designated course programme for getting the Vocational Pedagogy Certificate.

The Ministry of Education and Training (MoET) is responsible for all university-level training programmes and thus for the pre-service teacher training programmes. Inputs of the pre-service programmes are graduates of upper-secondary school. The pre-service training programmes are delivered at five Universities of Technology Education (UTE) and at Faculty of Technical Education of some other universities.

Novice teachers start their job by having a formally structured induction phase. The induction phase is 6 months for teachers teaching at the elementary level and 12-month teacher teaching at the intermediate and college level.Footnote 4 During this phase, the novice teachers are mentored by experienced teachers while participating in lessons of other teachers, developing lesson plans, giving lessons themselves, etc. Responsibility of preparing content belongs to TVET institutions.

The Ministry of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs (MoLISA) is responsible for in-service teacher training programmes which are delivered by 39 Departments for Vocational Pedagogy at vocational colleges.

There is the national TVET teacher’s standard,Footnote 5 which released in March 2017 that comprises of:

  • Professional competency: technical, foreign language, ICT

  • Pedagogy competency: qualification, teaching time, teaching preparation, teaching conducting, assessment, training profile management, curriculum/learning material development, training planning, learner’s management and maintain the learning environment

  • Career development, scientific research: participating in further qualification, development of employability skills for learners, participating at research.

This standard is an important basis for designing and conducting of training programmes: professional skills training (updating, upgrading), pedagogy training (certificate course design), i.e. the national pedagogy standard training programme for certificate of vocational pedagogy comprises of vocational psychology, vocational education, teaching skills and teaching methodology, teaching media, curriculum development, internship. The duration of the programme is 400 h. This is the pedagogy in-service certificate (by MoLISA). Universities or colleges can use it as a top-up programme in pre-service training. At the moment, there are both teachers with and without it in the system.

Beside the pedagogy training programme, MoLISA/DVET and provincial Department of Labour, Invalid and Social Affairs also offer practical training programmes with duration of 480 h (for graduates of TVET teacher training universities) and 960 h (for graduates of engineering programmes). Objective of this programme is to improve practical skills for TVET teachers in order to make them meet the national practical standards which are regulated in the Circular No. 08/2017/TT-BLDTBXH on standards and qualifications of TVET teachers.

TVET teachers come from different sources as follows: graduates of UTE or other universities; graduates of vocational colleges and vocational secondary schools and skilled workers and technicians from industries and skilled artisans.

  • Salaries of Teachers/Trainers/Instructors

It depends on teachers working at public or non-public TVET institutions who will get different starting salary levels. For public TVET institutions, salary is calculated based on qualification level of teachers. Starting salary level is around USD 175. For non-public TVET institutions, starting salary is a negotiation, but not less than the regulated minimum salary, which is regulated differently in regions of the country.

  • Teachers’ Professional Development

MoLISA and provincial Department of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs (DoLISA) organize further training courses to improve practical skills for TVET teachers with aim to make the teachers meet the skill standards (regulated in the Circular No. 08). Besides, MoLISA and DoLISA also provide vocational pedagogy programme for novice teachers, further pedagogy training programmes on topics of developing integrated teaching plan, competency-based training and training on new technologies for TVET teachers. Pre-service training programmes are conducted by universities. That could be offered in kind of training credits or time-based curricular. In-service training programmes are structured in modules.

  • TVET Graduates

In 2016, the percentage of graduates is hired by the industry upon completion of course was over 70%, in which graduates of vocational colleges and vocational secondary schools were 69 and 72% accordingly. The average starting salary for graduates is VND 4.2 million/month (Fig. 10.5).

Fig. 10.5
figure 5

Source Department of Formal Training—DVET

Graduates from vocational college, intermediate and elementary levels and under 3-month training during 2015–2016

Full size image

10.8 Private Sector Cooperation

There are quite a number of professional associations. They are potentially relevant to engage in TVET activities; however, in general, many of them have not yet or little involving in TVET sector.

In some specific professions, participation of the association is very active for development of occupational standards, delivery training programmes, etc. (e.g. Vietnam Water and Sewage Association worked with GIZ bilateral programme in Vietnam on pilot of cooperative training). Besides, there are also some cooperation between DVET and

  • Collaboration with the Embassy of Australia, Taipei Economic and Cultural Office in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam Chamber of Commerce and Industry (VCCI) organized seminars on promoting the participation of enterprises in TVET, cooperate TVET institutions and enterprises between Vietnam and Taiwan, model of linking enterprises with TVET institutions.

  • Signed a cooperation programme between DVET and VCCI and big corporations such as BigC, Vingroup, BIM Group, FLC Group, etc., to enhance the role, responsibility and efficiency of the cooperation of the DVET and VCCI and the enterprises in strengthening the connection between TVET institutions and enterprises. Organized workshops to seek for effective models for cooperative training. TVET institutions have changed in cooperation with enterprises in training and job placement for their graduates and organized visits for their teachers in enterprises.

  • Collaborate with Japanese enterprises in assessing and certifying skill standards based on Japanese standards in some TVET institutions for some occupations.

10.9 Current Trends and Practices

Areas of greatest demand are sales, information technology, business development, accounting, marketing, engineering, human resources, manufacturing, quality control, administration/secretarial, medical and health.

By Sector: manufacturing, health care/pharmaceuticals, finance, IT.

Skills in Demand.

The most-needed soft skills in Vietnam include communication skills, problem-solving ability, ability to work in teams, ability to interpret, analytical skills, creative decision making, adaptability, ability to think ahead, organizational skills and ability to delegate.

Key skills needed for the next five to ten years in Vietnam, as well as throughout the Asia-Pacific region, according to Oxford Economics, include Digital business skills, Agile-thinking skills and Global-operating skills.

Vocational courses are not preferred over academic courses. Graduates of academic courses (bachelor degrees) earn more money than graduates of TVET institutions.Footnote 6

10.10 Ongoing Reforms/Projects

At macro level, MoLISA is working on different policies to encourage involvement of business sector in TVET, empower TVET institutions by giving more autonomy in terms of developing strategic plans, human resources and finance to TVET institutions, improve QA mechanism as well as to continuously provide further training courses to TVET institution teachers and managers for upgrading their competence to meet the national standards.

At implementation level, depending on self-capacity, TVET institutions organize open days, career fairs which are in collaboration with local enterprises. Quite number of TVET institutions has developed good collaboration with enterprises for their internship courses as well as for conducting tracer surveys for their graduates.

With the technical cooperation of GIZ’s “Programme Reform of TVET in Vietnam”, at policy level, DVET/MoLISA has installed mechanism for developing yearly national TVET report—TVET sector monitoring tool—into the TVET system, it is also piloting topics of criteria for selecting high-quality TVET institutions, autonomy of TVET institutions. At TVET institution level, topic of Centre of Excellent for TVET and greening TVET are piloted. Besides, cooperative training has been carried out and it got initial success.

10.11 Key Issues and Challenges

Lack of effective collaboration with industry: the Government and TVET institutions are aware of the importance of having collaboration with industry in TVET, there are law and other policies to encourage enterprises to work with TVET institutions; however, there are not so many close and effective collaboration models between enterprises and TVET institutions. Generally, the enterprises are not very much interested in involving in TVET activities for the time being.

Low image and awareness of TVET in society: TVET is considered as the second choice of education pathway in understanding of many people. Generally, in quite many occupations/sectors graduates of vocational training programmes are paid lower than graduates of academic programmes (who held bachelor degree).

Inadequate reward and social status for TVET teachers/trainers: value and role of personnel in TVET system (teachers/instructors and school managers) are not duly considered.

Limited competence of TVET teachers and managers: many TVET teachers still do not meet the national standards. They lack practical skills and industrial experience as well as competence for delivering training programmes in a student-centred approach. Only small percentage of TVET institution managers received training on management knowledge. Recently, the Government has paid attention to provide training to TVET institution managers. However, at national scale, competence of the managers is still remained at low level.

No effective Labour Market Information System (LMIS) exists: Vietnam is making effort to shift the TVET system from supply-driven to market-oriented; however, the LMIS is not really existed at national level. The lack of LMIS could lead to mismatch of training demand and supply in terms of quantity and quality.

There are quite a number of policies and plans that help to overcome some of the mentioned above challenges.